CCAC scrambling to repair water damage

Published: Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014, 9:00p.m. Updated 1 hour ago

Officials at the Community College of Allegheny County have scrambled to relocate science labs and classes as they assessed damage from water pipes that burst in the K. Leroy Irvis Science Center.

The spring term starts on Monday.

Water damaged all five floors of the new $28 million facility when copper pipes in a green heating and cooling system split open sometime during the winter break, which began on Dec. 21. Staffers returned to the campus on Jan. 2 to find extensive water damage in the labs on the west side of the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building located off Ridge Avenue.

Officials still had no estimate of the damage on Friday. Allegheny Campus President Donna Imhoff said that won't be apparent until workers remove drywall and ceiling tiles and repairmen are able to review lab equipment that water permeated.

Right now my priority is students and safety. We're still assessing the damages. Hopefully, we will have it repaired before midterm, Imhoff said, pointing to a panel of copper pipes in a heating and cooling panel that burst above the ceiling in a fifth floor chemical supply room.

Classes will be held in some rooms and labs on the eastern side of the building that escaped damage, Imhoff said.

The Science Center, years in the making, houses modern labs and classrooms for programs in biology, microbiology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy and physical sciences.

Even before the ribbon cutting in March, officials suspected problems with the building when a section of snow and ice accumulated on the eastern side of the roof then fell several stories to the plaza below.

On Nov. 7, CCAC trustees, acting at the recommendation of an independent architect, approved spending $82,000 for an upgrade to an electrical de-icing system for the roof and gutters on the east side of the building. Imhoff could not say whether the work was completed.

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CCAC scrambling to repair water damage